Mansfield church finds home in former sports bar
Life Family Church holds services in former bar
Sticky floors and the smell of stale popcorn aren’t really conducive to a good Sunday morning sermon and church service.
While worshipping in the darkened movie theater, pastor Clay Wilkinson would deliver his heartfelt oratory only to be interrupted by movie previews on the big screen behind him. The Life Family Church had been holding its weekly services at the Cinemark theater in Mansfield before Sunday matinees. Wilkinson and his congregation needed a place to call their own.
“The movie theater would inevitably mess up just as I’m getting to the quiet part of my message,” Wilkinson said.
At his church, where the motto is there are no perfect people, there had to be a more perfect place.
Nobody thought the place would be a converted sports bar.
In the community where golf carts scurry past two-story brick homes to Walnut Creek Country Club, a white building resembling the Roman Colosseum rises from the pavement. The building, once home to Herb’s Family Sports Grill, sat as empty as its ancient inspiration.
To Wilkinson, it seemed just the place to build his congregation. He teamed up with a real estate agent, got a bank loan and signed the papers in October. After months of redecorating, the 100-member congregation is celebrating its first two months at the bar.
Meeting in a former bar is unusual. So is meeting in a place that is a reminder of Christian oppression. Wilkinson enjoys the irony.
“Someone told me, ‘Only you would want to buy a church that used to be a sports bar that looks like the Colosseum where they used to kill Christians.’ ”
It’s a recent Sunday morning. Wilkinson stands behind the bar offering coffee, orange juice and doughnuts to guests. Roman arches beckon visitors into a foyer. The nursery has taken over the bar lounge, now decorated in a safari motif with grinning giraffes and lions. The kitchen is still intact. The smell of steaks and hamburgers is replaced with pre-service pancakes and syrup.
“We ended up by default with one of the best church kitchens in Mansfield,” Wilkinson said. In the days after the building’s purchase, neighbors visited with church members who helped renovate the building. When they inquired about the new tenant, church member Shane Cavitt told them it was their new house of worship.
“Most of the times it was a positive response; sometimes it ended the conversation,” Cavitt said. “So it’s really kind of taking some people by surprise.”
The church inherited broad-backed benches, tables, life-size video games and 36 flat-screen televisions. They donated some of the 36-inch TVs to churches and charities. Others still hang on the walls.
While Wilkinson delivers a sermon about Peter the apostle, Jason Mitchell hangs out in the back of the sanctuary wearing a Red Hot Chili Peppers T-shirt and a black beanie. A quirky character himself, he likes the church’s laid-back approach.
Herb McConathy, the “Herb” in the sports bar’s name, had hoped to create a fun, family experience when he built the place. But McConathy struggled to get a liquor license. He said neighbors petitioned the City Council to deny a variance for alcohol. The restaurant was open for three months before it closed in 2004 because of financial difficulties.
McConathy often drove by the building that still had his name on it. And then he met Wilkinson and found out about the church.
“I prayed that something good would happen out of it,” McConathy told Wilkinson. “And it has.”Jon Nielsen
The Dallas Morning News
Innerline Plumbing has a connection of sorts to the Life Family Church. We installed the ADA drinking fountain at the property.